The 1909 Foundation

Incubator space: 1909 provides affordable shared workspace designed to support founders in their day to journey of entrepreneurship. The space provides high speed wi-fi, printing, conference rooms, brainstorm areas and a community of other founders to provide support. We support over 230 members in our incubator space.

Events & programming: 1909 offers year round events for our members and The greater community. These events included mastermind group gatherings, industry specific meet-ups and training, personal development and connection events, mentorship gatherings, college student intros, and networking opportunities. We also hosted our gala to recognize our founders and raise funds to support our programming efforts.

Accelerator program: 6 month, application-based business accelerator and mentorship program designed to help founders develop their ideas into successful businesses. We supported 8 new entrepreneurs with The development and launch of their businesses. We offer business courses to help founders turn their ideas into real businesses. Our programs are based on collaborative learning, which is The educational approach of using groups to enhance learning through working together. This style of learning is proven to help participants develop social skills, learn from peers with different skills, build trust, become more engaged, and build confidence and leadership skills.

Mentorship: we connect founders and mentors across our community, encouraging knowledge sharing to help founders achieve their goals efficiently and effectively.

Co-lab: a team competition of creativity and productivity designed to slingshot our founders with an injection of talented, focused energy. Assigned teams of 4-5 skilled volunteers work together with a founder to impact their project as much as possible in a 12-day hackathon-style event.

Project 1909: a micro-grant initiative that allows us to pair skilled freelancers with small local businesses in need to complete projects to help The business grow.